NATIONAL CALL-OUTFollowing their national demonstration in London on the 16th of July, the bickering remnants of the EDL (English Defence League) have announced another national demonstration in Nottingham on the 6th of August. However – Nottingham is a firmly antifascist city and has shown repeatedly over the past decade that racists are NOT welcome here! We’re calling for a strong counter-mobilsation on the 6th of August to give a much needed boost to the organised Left post-Brexit, and deal a critical blow to the tottering remnants of the EDL.

EDL in disarray – the last throw of the diceThe EDL are croaking their last breaths. After their demo in London earlier this month, the group has decended into bickering with key figures declaring the demo “an embarrassment” and attempting to start yet more splinter groups. Bizarrely, they’ve chosen this moment to show Notts Casual Infidels (NCI – a local EDL splinter group), how to put on a racist march in a city which is fiercely anti-racist.

NCI’s last demo – June 11th 2016If you missed NCI’s previous attempt to march in Nottingham, a strong anti-fascist turnout vastly outnumbered the racists. The Police kept the racists penned-in a narrow sidestreet for two hours. Eventually they were put on a double-decker bus and escorted to the train station.

NCI’s reaction to Jo Cox’s murderJust hours after Jo Cox was murdered, NCI appeared to celebrate her killing, posting “We knew it was only a matter of time before we take it to the next level. We have been mugged off for Far to (sic) long”. Antifascists and the media quickly caught onto this, and it became clear that just three hours before the attack on Jo Cox, NCI had posted a video of another female Labour MP inYorkshire, Rachael Maskell, with the caption “This bi*ch needs to disappear”. Though they later retracted these posts claiming the just “came out wrong”, they have continued to post similarly mysoginistic material, along with the usual stream of racism.

Why join us and stand against the EDL?In the past year, particularly since Brexit, there has been a sharp rise in racist attacks, in particular Islamophobic attacks on individuals and premises seen to be Muslim. These have included firebomb attacks. Combined with government policy and the mainstream media, EDL marches have helped create and sustain a climate where such attacks are possible, giving confidence to the attackers by making them think they are a part of a growing popular movement. It is important that we stand up and stand united against their presence.